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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22681012">Time of the Month</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bowser_Sourpuss_Bread/pseuds/Bowser_Sourpuss_Bread'>Bowser_Sourpuss_Bread</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tales From The Garreg Mach School of Peace: My Three Houses Modern AU [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dysphoria, Gen, Gender Dysphoria, Lonato is a good dad - Freeform, Menstruation, Periods, Trans Ashe, Trans Male Character, supportive friends</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 08:41:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,366</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22681012</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bowser_Sourpuss_Bread/pseuds/Bowser_Sourpuss_Bread</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ashe gets his first period away from home at 4 AM on a Tuesday.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tales From The Garreg Mach School of Peace: My Three Houses Modern AU [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1629751</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>47</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Time of the Month</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I gave Ashe siblings. Well, no, that's not quite right. Ashe already has a younger sister and younger brother in canon. I just gave them personalities and stuff. :P</p><p>Ashe is currently 16. He was 10 when he was adopted by Lonato. He was 7 when he officially became homeless. He's the pure bean we all know from canon. He's just also trans now. :)<br/>Ambre is currently 13. She was 7 when she was adopted by Lonato. She was 4 when she officially became homeless. Ambre is the queen of her family and always sticks up for Ashe. Anyone who doesn't like Ashe is stupid.<br/>Augie is currently 9. He was 4 when he was adopted by Lonato. He was 1 when he officially became homeless. Augie also has intellectual disability (through fetal alcohol syndrome), but that's not important to this story.</p><p>Christophe is still dead, y'all. He also had intellectual disability and was a victim of gun violence.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Blood.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s too late. He runs into the bathroom anyway. It pools in the toilet bowl. He watches the water turn to red. It makes him feel dizzy. He knows why. He always feels dizzy the first day of his period, and most of the time- Yeah, his stomach hurts too.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ingrid is so ahead of things. Ingrid put a clock in their bathroom. Ashe checks the clock. It’s 4 AM. He rubs his eyes. He can’t look in the mirror, not right now, but he just </span>
  <em>
    <span>knows</span>
  </em>
  <span> that his eyes are bloodshot. He shudders. Ah. He knows that’s the right word, but-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He didn’t bring a pad. He didn’t bring a pad, it’s 4 AM, there’s no light, he’ll bleed all over the floor, it’s 4 AM, he can’t go back to sleep, he’s dizzy, his stomach hurts, it’s 4 AM…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There’s a knock at the bathroom door. He closed it. At least he did </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span> right. “Ashe?” It’s 4 AM on a </span>
  <em>
    <span>Tuesday</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and he woke up Ingrid. Can’t he do anything right? He wants to say something, </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything</span>
  </em>
  <span>, an apology, probably, he should apologize, but his voice is lodged in his throat, and he’s choking on his tears. “Are you OK?” No, it’s not OK to wake up your roommate of less than a month at 4 AM on a Tuesday! “I’m coming in.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>You’re</span>
  </em>
  <span> what!? Ashe doesn’t have time to- Flush the toilet? Stop crying? Cover up? There’s no time, and it’s 4 AM on a Tuesday, and his roommate of less than a month is staring at his half-naked body. And then it hits him: </span>
  <em>
    <span>I never told her.</span>
  </em>
  <span> The Garreg Mach School of Peace allows opposite-sex roommates, and Ashe thinks he passes pretty well, just not during… his time of the month. And he </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> going to tell her! Just… After more than a </span>
  <em>
    <span>month</span>
  </em>
  <span>! And the story is spilling out of him, like the tears out his eyes and the snot out of his nose and the blood-but-no-it’s-actually-uterus-lining-plus-the-ovum out of his vagina.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And she’s gone. It’s 4 AM on a Tuesday, and his roommate of less than a month saw his half-naked body, and she’s never coming back.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s 4 AM on a Tuesday, and his roommate of less than a month saw his half-naked body, and he doesn’t care. He limps out of the bathroom, grabs his phone, then remembers to bring a pad too. He plants himself on the toilet bowl and calls Lonato.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He knows he can call him his dad, but at his worst times, he feels like he’s an imposter, just the kid who followed the man’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>real</span>
  </em>
  <span> son home and brought two other kids too. No, he can’t think about Christophe. It’s been </span>
  <em>
    <span>years</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but it still hurts. He didn’t deserve it. No one </span>
  <em>
    <span>deserves</span>
  </em>
  <span> to get shot in the back in the dead of night, but Christophe </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> didn’t deserve it, not Christophe, who saw him as a </span>
  <em>
    <span>person</span>
  </em>
  <span>, not as some beggar -no, he wasn’t a beggar, he was a </span>
  <em>
    <span>thief</span>
  </em>
  <span>… At some point, Lonato picked up. At some point, Lonato started walking him through breathing exercises. At some point, Ashe started breathing again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ashe told him </span>
  <em>
    <span>everything</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>sure</span>
  </em>
  <span> your roommate doesn’t hate you, Son.” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Son</span>
  </em>
  <span>. It’s a little thing, but it makes him feel like he’s not… fake.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I woke her up on 4 AM on a Tuesday!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s school. People have been woken up for less.” Lonato sounds so </span>
  <em>
    <span>sure</span>
  </em>
  <span> of that, and Ashe can’t help but wonder…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A new face enters the frame. His little sister, Ambre, rubs at her eyes. “You’re stupid,” she tells him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ambre!” Lonato’s mad. Usually, she’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>Princess</span>
  </em>
  <span>. “You do </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> use that word on your brother!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She puts her hands on her hips. Ashe catches himself making a remark about teenagers in his head and feels very old.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re stupid for thinking anyone hates you, and they’re stupid if they do hate you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh no, did I wake up Augie too?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Augie can sleep through </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything</span>
  </em>
  <span>!” Ambre insists, but she does so quietly. Just in case.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lonato senses the undertone of his question. “And even if he did, Augie wouldn’t be mad.” And the thing is, he believes him. Augie reminds him of Christophe. In so many ways. And there he goes again, thinking about Christophe. He’s crying again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He doesn’t hear the knock at the door. Lonato does. “I think your roommate wants to come in.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do you have pants on?” Ambre asks. He </span>
  <em>
    <span>knew</span>
  </em>
  <span> he’d forgotten something! A clean pair of pants! He doesn’t want to put back on his soiled ones, but he owes Ingrid at least that much… </span>
  <em>
    <span>If I answer the door. She saw that I’m alive. Maybe if I don’t answer, she’ll go back to sleep and forget about everything.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Son, answer the door.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>But she deserves better than to have to deal with this.</span>
  </em>
  <span> That is what Ashe thinks. What Ashe says, though, is, “OK.” He doesn’t end the video call, though. Just in case. Lonato will always lend him an ear, and soon Ambre will get bored and go back to sleep. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Just like Ingrid should be- Stop that!</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He opens the door, and it’s not just Ingrid. It’s Mercedes and Annette, and they have… cookies? Should he be eating cookies at 4 AM on a Tuesday?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He decides that he doesn’t care. With his mouth full, he can listen to what they, his dear friends, have to say. “I know we haven’t known each other long,” Annette is saying. “But we’re friends, and we know how much periods suck.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I made this recipe when Annette first got </span>
  <em>
    <span>her </span>
  </em>
  <span>period,” Mercedes offers.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ingrid looks between nervously. “I don’t think he needs to know </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> much…” He really doesn’t, but he also doesn’t mind. From the first day he met Mercedes and Annette, he’s been astounded by how kind they are, how open. He admires that. He wants to be that open, he really does, but to be a trans boy is still really dangerous… Ashe knows all too well what an angry person with a gun can do. His roommate works to make eye contact with him. “I must apologize, Ashe.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What?</span>
  </em>
  <span> “No, Ingrid.” Oh. His mouth is still full. He swallows. He really can’t have Ingrid think he’s any </span>
  <em>
    <span>more</span>
  </em>
  <span> disgusting. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m</span>
  </em>
  <span> the one who must apologize. I woke you up on 4 AM on a Tuesday, and you saw me half-naked.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> true…” Before he can continue, though, she cuts him off. “But I left you crying! I just went to Mercedes and Annette’s room, since you’re way closer to them than I am, but you didn’t know that because I didn’t tell you. But when I came back in, you were talking to your father, and I realized that what I did could be interpreted as… as…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The blonde looks to Annette for help. “Transphobic,” the redhead supplies.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Blood rushes to Ashe’s face. “Oh… You… You heard that?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know that a lot of people like you feel bad about their bodies, but I never suspected… Well, I didn’t know until today… And I never thought…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her execution is clunky, but Ashe understands what she means. “I usually don’t feel so bad about my body. Dysphoric. But I do during my… time of the month.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Is there anything we can do for you, Ashe?” Mercedes asks, and he feels like he wants to cry all over again. But for a different reason.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Keep bringing cookies?” He doesn’t know what to do with this kindness. “Although maybe I shouldn’t. My stomach hurts.” And Mercedes is off like a light, saying something about a tea that helps with stomachaches, and Annette is changing his sheets, and Ingrid looks like a deer in the headlights, but she’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>trying</span>
  </em>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He gets a change of pants and closes the door to change. He remembers his phone on the ground. The video call has ended, but there’s a text from his dad: </span>
  <em>
    <span>tmi from your friends but youre in good hands son</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ashe believes it. Mercedes and Annette and Ingrid sit and talk with him until it’s time to </span>
  <em>
    <span>actually</span>
  </em>
  <span> get up on a Tuesday.</span>
</p>
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